See 'The To Do List,' Then Write Your Own

Dina Gachman
, ContributorI write about entertainment and the business of television.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

No one wins an Oscar or the Nobel Peace Prize for marking something off their to-do list. Personally, I think grabbing a pen and drawing a line through something you pledged to accomplish on any given day is a pretty big deal. It can be a straight line, a lightning bolt, or an off-the-cuff doodle of Guernica – who cares, as long as it gets marked off. You set a goal and made it happen. Good for you.

Courtesy of CBS Films

Granted, writer-director Maggie Carey’s new comedy The To Do List is about a very smart girl (played by Queen Deadpan Aubrey Plaza) making a list that will help her learn how to give hand jobs, dry hump, and eventually have sex, but still – the girl has goals. Plus, the women in raunchy teen comedies are usually pretty objects standing around in their underwear while the guys get to have the goals, overcome obstacles, and write manifestos and take action. The To Do List lets the girl lead the charge - hallelujah.

It’s funny, and you should go see it. In real life, unless you dig being a lazy bum, you should be making your own to-do lists, all the time. Just look at all you can accomplish if you write some goals down on a piece of paper or in your iPhone or on your wall with Magic Marker if you’re feeling crazy and don’t care about getting the deposit on your apartment back.

Write a to-do list if:

You want to become the first female president

You want to master the art of glass blowing

You want to learn to cook the world’s (or France’s) most complicated French soufflé

You want to buy your first piece of property but you have to pay off your student loans and your bar tab first

You want to get the guts to quit your corporate job and become a professional poker player

You want to get into grad school

You want to conquer the world

You want to somehow, someway, go off the grid and live in the jungle like Jane Goodall

You want to learn to master the art of twerking (this is a bad idea BTW)

You want to finally do that one thing you’ve always dreamed of doing but haven’t had the time or the guts to go after

It seems simple, but get off the couch and just write it down - every day if you need to. Mark things off as you accomplish them – lists like this are good at filling you with crippling guilt and self-loathing if you see them sitting on your desk with no slashes or DIY Guernica doodles to signify that you’re moving towards your goal. Self-loathing can be a great motivator.

In real life, making a to-do list in order to lose your virginity would be a little psycho, sure, but in the movies it’s A-OK. Take a cue from Aubrey Plaza: If you just write down whatever it is you want to accomplish, you might actually make it happen, or at least get close, line by line and doodle by doodle. Just please don’t make it about twerking. That's a waste of paper.